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“Where are you headed with your date?” she questioned. “Anywhere I’d know?”
“Just over to The Italian Affair.”
Bessy’s eyes lit up. “Well, you picked a wonderful place. Best Italian food in the entire area. I hope you enjoy.”
I smiled. “And I hope Harry takes you on a date soon!” I winked.
“Oh goodness, our days of dating have expired. When you get to be our age, well, you’re just happy you can continue doing what you’re doing every day.”
I smiled and nodded, asked her a few more questions about some places here in Willow Valley, and then made my way upstairs to my room. I walked over to my closet and opened the door. I hadn’t a clue what I would wear tonight. In the military, we would just use our dress uniform. I somewhat missed having that. I never had to think about what to wear.
I pulled out a pair of black dress pants and placed them on the bed, then I sifted through the shirts that hung color-coded in the closet. Pulling out two shirts, I held them both up. Perhaps this would be too dressy, I countered. This one, from the look of the place, would be too casual. I let out my breath and pulled out another two shirts, faced, once again, with the same problem.
“Yep, I miss my uniform,” I muttered, throwing the shirts into a heap on the bed.
Walking over to the small desk in my room, I picked up the phone and dialed Melinda’s number. I was just about to hang up after the fifth ring when I heard her answer.
“Hello!”
“Melinda! Can you do a favour for your old man?”
Melinda laughed. “Of course, Dad. What do you need?”
“Can you come over here and help me find something to wear for tonight?” I asked, closing my eyes at the thought of involving my daughter on my date.
The phone went silent. “Tonight? What’s tonight?” she questioned.
“Well, I did as you suggested, and I have a date.”
“She said yes?” She squealed with excitement. “Dad, that is wonderful. I’m so happy for you.”
I chuckled. “She did. So what do you say? Can you help your old man out?”
Within the hour, Melinda arrived, and I now stood beside my daughter as she sifted through my shirts, looking for the perfect one. She’d hold each one up to me and shake her head, then pull the next one out and repeat the process.
“What did you wear before?” She sighed, going back to a shirt she’d thrown down in a pile on my bed as a maybe. “These are so old. The patterns, even the fabric is different than the ones in the stores here.”
“Well, whenever we had a function or a dinner out, we wore our dress uniform. It was simple. I never had to guess what to wear. I’d just pull that out. It was simple. The way I like it. To be honest, I didn’t have many dates though, kid.”
“I see.” She shook her head, completely focused on the task at hand. “I think this one might do,” she said, holding up one of the few shirts I hated.
“No, not that one. I should have told you that from the start when you threw it into that pile.”
“What is wrong with this?” she questioned, looking down at the other options she’d set aside. “It’s probably the most practical.”
“For starters, it’s got a lot of white in it. We are having Italian.”
“Are you telling me that the sergeant is a messy eater?” she asked, pulling out another shirt.
“When I’m nervous and not on my game, yes,” I answered.
“You know, Dad, for what it’s worth, I am sure Peggy is just as nervous as you are.”
“What makes you say that?”
Melinda shrugged. “Well, I don’t think the woman has been on a date since she lost her late husband. She’s probably feeling sick to her stomach with nerves.”
“Do you think so?”
